Paul Week Part 1 - You're Dangerous

Paul and I exchanged emails on Friday about Top Gun (I guess everyone's got shitty movies on their mind). We manage to waste most of the day without broaching the subject of Tom Cruise's awkward licking of Kelly McGillis.

> a couple of things for your friday......
>
> 1)this is the 3rd day in a row i've woken up with
> toto's "hold the line" in my head. this could be the
> first sign of insanity.
>
> 2)here are the three songs i heard while in the shower
> this morning:
> a)"danger zone" by the immortal kenny loggins
> b) kiss "lick it up"
> c) eddie money "i wanna go back"
>
> after hearing this string of songs i figured that i
> must have time-warped back to 1985 without knowing it
> or this is the start to one amazing weekend. by the
> way, after hearing "danger zone", i began to think
> about the beach volleyball scene in the movie. is
> this the most uncomfortable scene for a heterosexual
> male to watch in cinema history? now i know i haven't
> seen brokeback mountain, but at least you know what
> you're getting when you go in there. the top gun
> scene just comes out of nowhere with four shirtless
> men playing beach volleyball with a cheap 80s song as
> the soundtrack. your thoughts?

I haven't seen the beach volleyball scene in a long time, but I chuckled just now thinking about the tiny Tom Cruise trying to play beach volleyball. Poor Goose got stuck with a lemon for a partner. And I can't remember what song was used in the background - was it "Playing With The Boys" by Kenny Loggins? (I cheated and looked up my choices on the amazon soundtrack page.) I think it was, which makes it even more uncomfortable.

PLUS, if you were our age back when Top Gun reigned supreme, you OWNED that soundtrack, and you listened to it pretty much non-stop. You know that had to make our fathers uncomfortable - two Kenny Loggins tracks?
Loverboy? Miami Sound Machine? Poor Dad.

[NOTE: I have a lot of TG soundtrack memories that I didn't share here with Paul, most notably that I would play the TG anthem on my cassette player as I pretended to be a pro wrestler. I would stand on my bed, jump, and drop the elbow onto my opponent - my pillow - while listening to the TG anthem's tasty electric guitar.]

And what about the locker room scenes? Did these guys really need a locker room? Aren't they pilots? Couldn't they just suit up in their bunks?

I saw a quote from Val Kilmer recently - I guess he plays a gay character in the movie "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", and he was asked if it was the first time he had a gay role. The quote was, "Only if you don't count Top Gun."

Toto might be in your head because they were featured in a Scrubs episode this week.

> i couldnt' remember the name of the song that was
> playing during the beach volleyball scene, but it is
> "Playing With The Boys" by Kenny Loggins. And yes,
> that definitely makes the scene 20 times more uncomfortable
> to watch. To give a quick recap of the series of events
> that occur during that part of the movie:
>
> 1. beach volleyball scene where appropriate attire is
> a pair of tight jeans and aviator sun glasses. i
> mean, really, who wears jeans to play volleyball?
>
> 2. an awkward moment consisting of a pose/flex and
> rebel yell by rick rossovich ("slider")(and don't ask
> me how or why i know his real name)
>
> 3. the game ends and cruise immediately hops on his
> motorcycle and speeds off to his lady's beachfront
> property
>
> 4. upon arriving, they listen to a little otis
> redding, which made me almost like this scene except
> for the fact that cruise is sporting his flight jacket
> while still inside the house
>
> 5. cruise then states that he's going to take a
> shower, and this is where i get creeped out if i'm
> kelly mcgillis (sp?). a student comes over to your
> house for the first time ever fresh off a scene out of
> "the birdcage" and now he wants to take a shower at
> your place. who is this guy? i mean, get real.
>
> all in all, it makes for a ludicrous 20 minutes of
> theatre. for some reason, it almost brings me to
> anger thinking about it. does this mean i spend way
> too much time thinking about meaningless things?

So, to recap, the soundtrack moves briskly from "Playing With The Boys" to "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" to "Take My Breath Away". Makes sense. Makes perfect sense. Jerry Bruckheimer, you've done it again.

Forget who wears JEANS to play volleyball - who plays volleyball at all? When was the last time four men decided to play beach volleyball without the company of women?

This chat may have upset us more than we know. Let's resolve to make it a Top Gun free weekend. In fact, the only movie I'll allow myself to watch this weekend is Underworld 2. No surprises there - just vampires fighting werewolves.

> good point about the sequence of songs. i've been so
> disoriented about the visual sequence of events that i
> totally blocked out the audio component. but, i guess
> all this passed for a blockbuster back in 1986.
>
> yeah, i'm definitely not letting top gun steal this
> weekend from me. six coronas into the mix tonight and
> i'll be telling myself that men really do get together
> and play beach volleyball in places other than the
> ymca.
>
> one last gripe about this movie, and then i swear i'm
> done with it. okay, their "top gun" school is in
> miramar, ca, which i think is around the san diego
> area. obviously, it's warm there year round. so why
> is cruise wearing a bomber jacket in 75% of the
> non-flying scenes? those things are designed to be
> like the warmest coat around, yet he's in southern cal
> and it's pretty much sewed onto him. there, i'm done
> thinking about it. or as phil hartman (playing frank
> sinatra) said "i'm done with you, baby, your money's
> on the dresser." farewell, top gun, i barely knew
> you.

I just looked up miramar, and yes, it's the northern part of San Diego, where it's always sunny, non-bomber-jacket weather. Hilarious observation.

I just remembered my first opportunity to see Top Gun - I was at my friend Justin's place, and his family gave me the choice of watching the VHS Top Gun or Back to the Future. I had to pick BTTF, because I promised my dad I would "save" Top Gun for him. Had he known its unsettling, beach volleyball-featuring contents, I'm not so sure we would have watched it together, or at all.